The Smartest Thing A Smartwatch Can Do: Disappear

Google Glass—which existed to conquer many of the same problems we are now hoping these new watches will take care of—clung to your face like an Alien facehugger, causing users to get stopped on the street as if they were... well, maybe not Kardashian, but possibly a Reid.

But devices such as the Apple Watch can hide in plain sight (or beneath long sleeves) for one simple reason: They are familiar. Their very shape does not draw stares and questions and feelings of standing out (though users can certainly expect that when their watch face lights ups).

Of course, there is something wonderfully atavistic about the recent rise of the smartwatch. After all, the watch itself has fallen on hard times in recent years as more people turn to their phones for an updated-with-every-ping-to-the-tower time. So for the watch category to come roaring back as a gadget that promises to steal at least some attention from the smartphone? Pure poetry.

But the watch is an ancient thing. Sundials aside, even wrist-based varieties stretch back at least a few hundred years. They are familiar, they are common, and it's been a very long time since they were the exclusive province of early adaptors. Unlike new gadgets that earn stares and gawks, watches exist without notice.

And it precisely because of this familiarity that the smartwatch may yet have a future—and why we are talking about smartwatches and not smart... well... anything-elses.

The forthcoming Apple Watch is the highest-profile smartwatch yet

Google Glass tried to give us a smart device that was as novel in its form as it was in its function, and that didn't exactly work out as they hoped. We are creatures of habit, and as much as we yearn to stand out, we also crave fitting in—and not being stared at because of the strange contraption on our face. And while some early adopters pick up gadgets specifically because they draw looks and questions and geek cred, the masses have little tolerance for such shenanigans.

People want new gadgets that solve problems and make their lives easier—they just don't want to be bugged about them while they are walking down the street. And as long as your smartwatch features an easily dimmable screen, it can do just that.

I'm a New York-based writer and entrepreneur. I appear on a few shows on the Travel, Science, History, Discovery, and Nat Geo channels. I also write for numerous publications, including Forbes. As a writer, I'm interested in the intersection between technology, human experi...